176 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



number of fighting-men in each case is the same. Between 

 1835 and 1842 the country was very much disturbed, and 

 fighting was frequent and fierce. But Mr. Hamlin had many 

 opportunities of gaining information, and his figures may be 

 accepted as approximately correct. 



Sir George Grey, when Governor of the colony in 1851, 

 accepted the estimate in his letters to the Home Government, 

 and he had the best means of obtaining information at that 

 time. (See despatch No. 121, Legislative, 1851.) 



It is somewhat difficult to arrange the Maori census 

 returns for 1901 in the same way as they are given in the 

 above tabulation. The results on page 21 of the " Census of 

 Maori Population for 1901 " are arranged by counties, and it 

 is hardly possible to compare the districts at the two periods. 

 However, by putting together a whole district like that to the 

 north of Auckland, for the purpose of comparing the present 

 population with the estimate made in 1842, it will be found 

 that marked changes have taken place. Adding together the 

 first four districts named in Mr. Hamlin's table, the estimated 

 population in 1842 was 16,500 Maoris, whilst the census 

 returns for 1901 for the whole of the peninsula to the north of 

 the Eden County gave a population of 9,651. The Waikato 

 and Manukau districts were estimated at 18,000 natives in 

 1842, but the entire district from Eden County to the Piako 

 County contains to-day less than 6,000 ! The East Coast dis- 

 trict, extending from Cape Bunaway to Ahuriri (Napier), was 

 undoubtedly the most populous portion of the North Island. 

 The late Bishop of Waiapu, who first visited it in company 

 with the late Bev. W. Colenso, F.B.S., expressed surprise at 

 the large population to be found at Hicks' Bay, Waiapu, 

 Poverty Bay, and Te Mahia, and Mr. Colenso, in a separate 

 account that he gave of a second visit along the coast, said 

 that Wikawitira, in the valley of the Waiapu, " is one of the 

 largest native towns in New Zealand, containing, when all 

 are assembled, from 3,000 to 4,000 souls." When he visited 

 the place in 1838, with the late Bishop Williams, he says, " the 

 inhabitants were living in the grossest darkness of heathen- 

 ism. None knew how to read. Now nearly seven hundred 

 persons assembled for service in the chapel of this village, 

 a building which they had themselves built, measuring nearly 

 80 ft. by 40 ft., while in the school I had — First-class readers 

 in the New Testament, 77 ; second - class readers who re- 

 quired prompting, 92 ; third class, 128 ; fourth class, 

 rehearsers of catechisms, 240 ; and infants, 98 : making a 

 total at school, when numbers were in their plantations, of 

 635 persons, of whom more than 100 could read well." 



Mr. Hamlin sets down the population of the whole East 

 Coast (Nos. 19-20) at 30,120 ; and the census for last year 



